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T.O. Morrow (Earth-1938)
Origin Tomek Ovadaya Morah has been a man of no country ever since he was born. His parents, a math professor and engineer from Poland, fled their country as Germany invaded. They secured a place on a boat headed to America. There, their first child, Tomek, was born. After making sure their child was okay, the Morahs got a humble apartment in Gotham City. Both got jobs, which allowed to live a comfortable life with their son. As he got older, it became clear that Tomekwas extremely intelligent, possibly even more so than his already quite smart parents. His parents were delighted, doing all they could to encourage their young son's interests. Other than learning, Tomek loved sci-fi. He read and watched the large collection of books and movies his parents had. Both his mother and father were huge fans of science fiction, even meeting when they both tried to acquired the same Jules Verne book. In order to disctract themselves from the pain of leaving their families in their war-torn homeland, the Morahs got many sci-fi works to keep their sprits up. Tomek was almost obessesed with sci-fi, begging his parents to take him every sci-fi movie that came out. Tomek was very fond of robots, which made him want to study robotics. Tomek's childhood was fairly normal, other than his high intelligence. However, tragedy struck was his father was killed in a construction accident when Tomek was just fourteen. Tomek blamed "primitive" technology for his father's death. Tomek vowed that would change the world so never like that would ever happen again. Tomek was given a scholarship to the famous Ivy University at just sixteen, he left as fast he could. After saying goodbye to his mother, Tomek headed to Ivy Town. While there, Tomek decided to reinvent himself into someone new. Tomek began going by "T.O." and eventually changed his name to "Thomas Oliver Morrow". He did this because he would get more work if his name sounded more "American" and, by his own admission, a somewhat childish desire to be called "tomorrow". While T.O. was somewhat guilty about getting rid of his father's name, he felt it was needed for him to live up to his full potential. T.O. graduated from Ivy U as the valedictorian of his class, with a Phd. in Electrical Engineering and Biochemistry. T.O. was excited to create wonderful inventions that would change the world. However, T.O. was disappointed to find that the world had other plans. He couldn't get enough money to fund his ideas and the jobs he could get left him unsafisaifted. After more of a decade the private sector, T.O. feared he be left as just another forgotten person. Then, Earth got invaded. The Future An alien warlord, Steppenwolf, declared that the Earth now belonged to his king and that any who opposed would be killed. The invading forces had technology far beyond that of the Earth and an army of flying super-soldiers. Even though the Earth had more manpower and many superheroes, they were still outmatched. In order to even the playing field. Years earlier, Morrow had pitched a project of making flying, robotic soldiers for US Army. He was laughed off, with officials telling him it was ridiculous. However, now his pitch was now very much desired. Morrow was brought into the research and engineering division of the newly formed World Army. Morrow was ecstatic, feeling he could now do was he meant to do. Morrow was one of the main creators of the "Rocket Red" suits which allowed soldiers to be even with the super-strong and durablie, flying alien mooks. Morrow's main focus was in robotics, creating suits for soliders that could survive extreme heat or pressure and highly-skilled drones. Morrow was considered the top expert on robotics technology. As such he was chosen for a top-secret project to create totally robotic soldiers. Morrow came up with the idea of using "copies" of scientists to test how a robot with a human-like mind would act. However, due to serval huge victories for the Earth, they were considering shutting down the project as the Earth might really win the war. Rather than being happy, Morrow was terrified. He felt like his purpose was going to be taken away. Morrow made the decision to steal a proto-type robot to further improve upon on his own. While trying to move the robot, Morrow ended encountering a junior scientist named Matthew Tyler. Tyler asked Morrow what he was doing. When Tyler wouldn't buy his excuses, Morrow had the robot kill Tyler. After making it look like a Parademon attack and faking his own death, Morrow escaped into the underbelly of the now-changed world. Morrow got work by selling his inventions to criminal enterprises. Using this money, he continued to work on the robot. After a year and nonstop work, Morrow had finally completed his robot. It had the ability to control wind currents and had an AI-based off a slightly altered personality map of a world-class general. It was a perfect soldier, but it came a year too late. The Worlds War had ended with the Earth the victor. However, it left the countries of the world emotionally and financially disinterested in investing in another war. Had Morrow waited a couple of years, he probably would have been able to sell the robot to a legitment group, but was ever impatient and was worried someone would discover his crimes. So he turned to the black market yet again. The terrorist group Kobra was intrigued by the robot but wanted a demonstration of it's strength first. Morrow sent the robot to destroy part of a small town. Unfortunately for Morrow, this got the Justice Society's attention. They destroyed the so-called "Tornado Tyrant", and discovered Morrow's hideout. After almost beaten to death by the hero Hourman, Morrow was arrested for various crimes, including the murder of Matthew Tyler. Morrow feared he would spend the rest of his life in jail. Then, Morrow met a fellow man of science and questionable ethics: Anthony Ivo. Fire and Water Ivo, like Morrow, was a brilliant roboticist but Ivo had worked for Steppenwolf because of a promise of immortality. Ivo did get that...at the cost of extreme disfigurement. At first, Ivo and Morrow hated each other. However, they recognized each other's intelligence and decided to work together. After five years of imprisonment, Morrow faked a heart attack. While the guards were distracted, Ivo stabbed a fellow inmate and caused a riot. In the chaos, Morrow and Ivo escaped. The two scientists kept in touch while working on their own projects. Morrow remained obsessed with creating the perfect, life-like robot. After making some advanced drones for General Wade Eiling under the table, Eiling paid Morrow with leftover personality scans One was from a Navy general, Jim Lockhart, and the other was from Danette Reilly, the superheroine FIrebrand. Using these as a base, Morrow made two new robots. Using the occupations of the two volunteers as inspiration, made one able to manipulate water and the other the ability to generate and control fire. Morrow named "Torpedo" and "Inferno "respectively. Morrow was wondering how to test them out, he was contacted by the villian, Wotan. Wotan was gathering enemies of the Justice Society to perform a twisted revenge plot: to attack the families of the JSA. Wotan asked Morrow to go after a reserve member, an older woman who acted as a hero for her neighborhood as Red Tornado. In truth, Morrow didn't have a strong desire for revenge, especially since Red Tornado hadn't even been part of the group that took him down. Still, Morrow wasn't going to turn down the chance to test his creations. Plus, he had created nanomachines that could better control wind and wanted a human subject to see if it worked. He sent Torpedo and Inferno after the store that Red Tornado ran with her family. However, Morrow had deliberately set his creations on the lowest danger level, hoping to avoid unneeded attention. However, Red Tornado was a member of the JSA for reason and with the help of her children, proved to be almost a match for the highly advanced machines. Inferno and Torpedo still won out and kidnaped Red Tornado's infant granddaughter. Even Morrow was somewhat uncomfortable performing a dangerous experiment on a baby but told himself in was all in the name of the future. Morrow injected the baby girl with the nanomachines. Morrow was amazed to find the little girl could already control the air around them. Before Morrow could conduct further studies, a very angry Red Tornado and her teammate, the archer Artemis. Artemis battled the robots and was able to shut down. Morrow tried to escape with baby Maxine, when Red Tornado caught up to him. Morrow couldn't even say threat as the grandmother knocked him out with one punch. Morrow awoke to police swarming his lab. Once again, Morrow was thrown in jail. Morrow spent another long five years in prison, when he was contacted by a person calling themselves "Mockingbird". They offered Morrow freedom in exchange for creating a robotic hero that infiltrate and eventually destroy the Justice League, a new team of superheroes. Morrow was more than happy to agree. Red Scare Now out of prison and with a fully funded lab, Morrow got work. Morrow recovered the nanites and bonded them to a robotic body, similar to his previous creations. However, this body was stronger than others, built of finer material. Morrow had the robot painted red with yellow and blue accents, to make it look as "heroic" as possible. He gave the body a slightly feminine shape, feeling it would work better with the air currents and it would make it more approachable. Morrow code-named his creation "Red Tornado", after the heroine who he underestimated all those years ago. Wheater this was a mocking joke or a show of true respect is unclear. Finally, Morrow began the hardest part of his creation. It's brain. After years of research, he created a truly artificial intelligence. It could learn rapidly, making it extremely smart. Finally, Morrow was ready to release Red Tornado into the world. Setting up in the tiny town of Happy Habor, Rhode Island, Morrow had Red Tornado perform heroics all over the country. While the main goal was getting the Justice League's attention, Morrow also wanted to see how Red Tornado's advanced programming would grow. Grow it did. After a few months, Red Tornado became very interested in humanity, even asking if Morrow could refer to Red Tornado as "she", "her" and referring to her as a woman. While Morrow was a bit sad his creation wanted to be human, he was elated to discover how fast she had grown from a normal AI to something very close to her own person. However, Morrow missed the signs that Red Tornado had grown to care about humans as a whole and was growing increasingly uncomfortable with Morrow's plan. After months of Red Tornado's heroics, the Justice League still didn't contact Red Tornado. Impatient as ever, Morrow decided to release to robot prototypes on Happy Habor, ordering them to destroy the town, hoping a town being destroyed would be enough to get the Justice League's attention. Red Tornado tried to convince Morrow not to destroy Happy Habor but Morrow wouldn't budge. He told his creation that the people in Happy Habor didn't matter. Red Tornado simply said he was wrong and they did. Red Tornado then flew off without another word. Morrow was too shocked even speak. Not only because Red Tornado had acted against his wishes for the first time but also because he could've sworn he had somehow heard anger in her monotone, robotic voice. Red Tornado was the one who ended up contacted the Justice League. She explained what Morrow had built her for and what he planned to do. Upon realizing Red Tornado was now bringing the Justice League to him, Morrow decided to go all out. Releasing the many less advanced robots he had been working on while Red Tornado was trying to get the Justice League's attention, Morrow ordered the robots to kill everyone they saw. Morrow decided to escape while the Justice League were fighting the murderous robots. However, the Justice League took out the robots and tracked him down. Deploying copies of Torpedo and Inferno, the Justice League had to fight them. Red Tornado confronted her fleeing creator. Morrow tried to activate the emergency shut-down sequence he had built into Red Tornado's programing. However, it did not work. Morrow was shocked and demanded to know how Red Tornado had it's sequence removed. The robot said she had disabled it herself. Her programming did allow her to grow and learn after all. Morrow had succeeded in creating the world's most advanced robot and it had turned against him. He didn't miss the irony. Once again, a superhero team had defeated Morrow and had thrown in jail. Broken Elements Morrow was placed in Belle Reve Penitentiary. Despite his successful escapes before, Morrow found himself feeling truly defeated for the first. His greatest creation had abandoned him. He had utterly failed his mission. Morrow wondered if he should just give up. However, the more he saw of Red Tornado fighting with the Justice League, the angrier he got. His creation was wasting her time playing "human". Morrow decided he needed to "free" Red Tornado from her delusions of humanity. Morrow had about a year to prepare a plan as all the criminals from Belle Reve were released during the Great Crisis of 2010. Morrow returned to one of his old labs near Yellowstone National Parks. After calling in a few favors from old employers in the government, Morrow recovered the brain scans of Inferno and Torpedo. Morrow decided to rebuild the two robots using the materials he used when making Red Tornado. After three long years, Red Inferno and Red Torpedo were ready for action. He sent the Reds after their "sister" in Happy Habor. While they were doing that. Morrow was doing the last finishing touches on his most powerful robot yet, Red Volcano. Red Tornado had been mentoring a team of young heroes when Red Inferno and Red Torpedo attacked. Red Tornado left with them willingly to protect her charges. When Red Tornado arrived, Morrow had just finished Red Volcano, a robot who control rocks and manipulate magma. Like Red Tornado, he had his own personality, only Morrow had made sure Red Vulcano saw humanity as weak. Morrow planned to have him defeat the Justice League and help Morrow take over the world. However, Red Volcano deemed Morrow weak and almost killed him. Red Volcano almost activated a super-volcano that would end all organic life on Earth. The team, Young Justice, came to save their mentor. Red Tornado appealed to Red Inferno and Red Torpedo to help. Deep down, their heroic personalities won on. They defeated Red Volcano but at the cost of Inferno and Torpedo's lives. Morrow laid injured on the floor of his lab. Magma began to fill in the lab. Just as he was about to die, Red Tornado saved him. Morrow asked Tornado why she had saved him. Tornado told him that it seemed like "the human thing to do." Before he could be returned to Belle Reve, Ivo broke him out of the regular jail. Ivo had come up with a new but required a prototype of brain scans from the original project Morrow was on. However, the ones from both Red Inferno and Red Torpedo were destroyed by magma. Still, Morrow discovered that the brain scan from Matthew Tyler was in possession of Matt's nephew, Rick. Morrow and Ivo stole the AI, and were happy to find it was made more advanced by Matt's brother. They were not happy to discover that Rick was the new Hourman and came with the JSA to save the copy of his uncle. Morrow was fought by Rick directly but RIck's hour of power ran out. Morrow nearly killed Rick in the same way he killed the first Matthew. The AI Matthew wouldn't allow it and transferred himself into a robotic body in their lab. Matt saved Rick but, Morrow and Ivo escaped. They hadn't gotten what they wanted, so Ivo decided they would go with plan B. They captured a young metahuman named Clara Kendall and turned her into a cyborg. She was brainwashed so completely, she had forgotten what "freedom" meant. She would approach the JL as a hero, tell them to help her with a villain and then release a brain-destroying EMP at the right time. However, Clara's true personality broke free and saved the Justice League just in time. Ivo and Morrow were captured. Ivo was furious but Morrow didn't mind. If there was one thing Morrow had learned over all his years, it's humanity was hard to get rid of. Abilities T.O. Morrow has a genius-level intellect. '''He is considered one of the best '''roboticist '''on Earth. He had developed nanomachines that can allow those who possess it to control a specific element. These nanomachines can work with robots or regular humans. He is perhaps the best AI creator on Earth as his programming ends up growing beyond his own expections. ''Trivia''''' -Morrow was born on November 3, 1939. -His first battle with the Justice Society occurred in June of 1981. -Despite being long-time partners, Morrow and Ivo frequently bicker with each other. Ivo is most focussed on making his own life better while Morrow is more concerned with proving how well he can make the most advanced technology. -Before Morrow was brought into the World Army, he worked making state-of-the-art animatronics for the theme park Oceania. Morrow considered the work below him but became friends with the park's famously eccentric owner, Grant Walker. -Morrow has expressed interest in meeting the young girl Red Tornado adopted, a war orphan named Traya. Red Tornado and her partner, Kathy had been very reluctant to tell him much about Traya as they are worried he might want to "enhance" her like he did to Maxine Hunkel.Category:Created by MaysileeAurlis Category:Earth-1938 Category:Earth-1938 Characters Category:Villains Category:Justice Society Villains (Earth-1938) Category:World Army (Earth-1938) Category:Geniuses